Robert Stein (1950)

Robert Stein (1972)

Robert Stein (2000s)

About Me

editor, publisher, media critic and journalism teacher,
is a former Chairman of the American Society of Magazine Editors, and author of “Media Power: Who Is Shaping Your Picture of the World?” Before the war in Iraq, he wrote in The New York Times: “I see a generation gap in the debate over going to war in Iraq. Those of us who fought in World War II know there was no instant or easy glory in being part of 'The Greatest Generation,' just as we knew in the 1990s that stock-market booms don’t last forever.
We don’t have all the answers, but we want to spare our children and grandchildren from being slaughtered by politicians with a video-game mentality."
This is not meant to extol geezer wisdom but suggest that, even in our age of 24/7 hot flashes, something can be said for perspective.
The Web is a wide space for spreading news, but it can also be a deep well of collective memory to help us understand today’s world. In olden days, tribes kept village elders around to remind them with which foot to begin the ritual dance. Start the music.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

The President Makes a Point Before GOP Debate

On his way to an eight-day trip to discuss trade and security in the Pacific rim, Barack Obama watches a basketball game on an aircraft carrier and broadens the meaning of the Penn State scandal.

Asked about it, he says, “People have to step forward. They have to be tapping into just their core decency. When kids are being mistreated-— when anybody is being mistreated--all of us have to step up. We don’t leave it to somebody else to take responsibility.”

Will we hear an echo of that at tonight’s GOP debate?

Update: No. Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain want to bring back waterboarding, even as others point out that such torture is illegal under U.S. and international law.